Leadership: A word from Mennonite Church USA leaders

Last July, I experienced an a-ha moment while attending the Archives Leadership Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, an event that brings together 25 midcareer archivists from a wide variety of settings. It was suddenly apparent to me why my work in the Mennonite Church USA Archives was different from my previous eight years’ work in college and university archives and libraries.

Even better, I could finally identify the gut feeling that led me to apply for and accept this archivist position almost two years ago. In my work for the denomination, I am not just an archivist. I am a mediator of hope.

Of all of the amazing experiences of that week, during which my peers and I thought about our development as leaders in the institutions that employ us and in our profession at large, the one that stood out to me most was our introduction to resonant leadership, a leadership style characterized by mindfulness, compassion and hope.

As presented by Richard Boyatzis of Case Western Reserve University and Annie McKee of the University of Pennsylvania, resonant leadership is an alternative to leadership models that emphasize analytical skills, self-assertion and political prowess.
While not denying the importance of such skills, resonant leadership insists they are best exercised in the service of wholeness and connectedness. It challenges leaders to embrace hope and the confidence, sense of purpose and resilience that accompany it.

As the child of a university professor and the recipient of two graduate degrees, I am well versed in the intellectual cynicism that permeates institutions of higher learning. Expressing hopefulness to one’s college or university colleagues is akin to announcing that you have bedbugs. It does not earn you friends or respect. Those operating from a place of hope are usually either dismissed as naïve Pollyannas or suspected of colluding with the administration. In this environment, one chooses not between optimism and pessimism but between optimism and “reality.”

Working as an archivist for a religious organization is entirely different. Hope has a credibility and depth in religious communities that is unmatched in secular society. In Christian contexts, hope motivates and guides behavior. Hope inspires us to provide outward and visible signs of our belief in God’s promised future. Hope steers us from self-destructive actions. And hope prompts us, as individuals and in community, to further Christ’s coming kingdom of love, peace and justice.

In my daily work in the Mennonite Church USA Archives, I am surrounded by the stories of people who hoped. Their diaries, letters, meeting minutes and reports bear witness to the hope that motivated them to find alternatives to violence, poverty, misery and injustice. It is an honor to care for these stories. But more importantly, it is imperative to share these stories of hope with the public by making collections available in our reading room and posting documents online.

I love helping present-day researchers welcome strangers from the past into their minds and hearts, creating relationships across time. I love it when researchers laugh with, cry for or express outrage on behalf of the stranger they are studying. I love helping cultivate in novice researchers empathy, compassion and an appreciation for the concerted effort required to understand those who are different. I know something amazing has occurred when a student researcher simply cannot stop reading old letters or diaries—despite the difficult handwriting and funny spellings—because he or she has to know how things turn out in the end. I also love bringing new life to the dead, bearing witness to their lives and reviving their hope. And despite the myriad differences among and within Mennonite communities of the past and present, we remain united in our hope.

The hope that permeates the historical records in the Mennonite Church USA Archives informs my hope for the future of the archives. Like all archives today, we face formidable challenges—a shrinking budget, an ever-expanding collection, the brave new world of electronic records management and the insatiable demand for digital access to historical documents, to name a few. And yet, in the spirit of the collections I curate, I remain hopeful. How could I do otherwise?

Colleen McFarland is archivist for the Mennonite Church USA Historical
Committee.